“Like the day of judgement” UN documents over 6,000 killed in three days during the RSF capture of El Fasher

More than 6,000 people were killed in just three days when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied Arab militias launched their final offensive on the Sudanese city of El Fasher in late October 2025, according to a devastating new report from the UN human rights office released Friday.

The 29-page report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documents patterns of “serious violations of international humanitarian law” and “human rights abuses” before, during and after the RSF capture of North Darfur's capital between 24 and 30 October 2025. Based on interviews with 146 victims and witnesses who fled to eastern Chad and Northern state, as well as analysis of satellite imagery and video footage, the findings point to “acts amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

“The patterns of serious violations of international humanitarian law and gross human rights abuses mirrored those documented by OHCHR during the RSF's earlier offensive on the Zamzam IDP camp in April 2025, when RSF fighters killed over 1,000 civilians,” the report noted.

The final offensive began on the night of 24 October, when RSF forces launched multiple attacks from four directions. The following morning, all wireless communications were disrupted, cutting coordination between Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and allied Joint Forces soldiers and their commanders.

A 32-year-old man from Daraja Oula, who survived the attack, recounted that 26 October felt “like the Day of Judgement.” He described relentless fire and shelling from every direction, forcing residents to flee in groups on foot. Many were struck down, with dozens killed or wounded by the bombardment as they tried to escape.

OHCHR documented the killing of over 6,000 individuals between 25 and 27 October alone with at least 4,400 killed within El Fasher and at least 1,600 while attempting to flee along exit routes. The actual death toll is “undoubtedly significantly higher,” the report notes.

Multiple sources cited by the report reported that “the RSF targeted the university dormitory where approximately 1,000 civilians,” including “members of the Joint Forces who were hors de combat (out of the fight), were sheltering.” Survivors cited by report noted that the RSF “besieged the building from all sides and opened fire using heavy weapons, killing approximately 500 people and injuring scores more.” A witness recounted that the impact of the attack hurled bodies into the air, “like a scene out of a horror movie.”

The OHCHR report details how RSF and Arab militia allies focused their assaults on younger men and boys suspected of affiliation with SAF, Joint Forces. Ethnic targeting was a recurring element, with victims often drawn from groups considered “non-Arab,” notably the Zaghawa. A witness recounted that on the morning of October 26, RSF fighters entered the Daraja Oula neighborhood, seizing around 300 young men at random. They split them into groups of 30, then fired on each group until none showed signs of life. Some groups were attacked with grenades, while others were subjected to a gas burner.

The report finds that sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, “appears to have been widespread” during the final offensive. Women and girls from Zaghawa and other non-Arab groups, particularly those accused of ties to SAF and Joint Forces, were singled out. One witness recounted knowing of at least four girls and eight women raped in the city between 22 and 26 October. Among them was a woman assaulted inside her home in front of her children; when her sons tried to intervene, both were shot, one fatally. The same pattern extended along escape routes. Another witness described how, on 27 October, after leaving El Fasher and reaching the area between Garni and Tura, armed men on camels and motorcycles stopped civilians, looted their possessions, and raped four underage girls “in full view of the group.”

OHCHR recorded accounts of child recruitment and use by the RSF, carried out either through community-level agreements in exchange for aid or through coercion. Witnesses also described seeing armed children along escape routes, including at checkpoints. One source recalled seeing a boy, about eight years old, armed and riding a donkey, seizing water jugs from fleeing women while threatening them with his weapon.

By early January 2026, the status and location of thousands of individuals, including civilians and those no longer taking part in hostilities, remained uncertain. “This pattern of disappearances appears to have been one of several tactics employed to spread terror amongst non-Arab communities, in addition to the mass killings, summary executions and sexual violence carried out on a large scale by the RSF,” the report said.

OHCHR concludes there are “reasonable grounds to believe that the RSF and affiliated Arab militia committed acts amounting to the war crimes of murder; intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects; launching indiscriminate attacks; use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare; attacks directed against medical and humanitarian personnel; infliction of sexual violence, including rape; torture and other cruel treatment; acts of pillage; and the conscription, enlistment, and use of children in hostilities.” The report added that “If committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, these acts may also amount to a crime against humanity.”

The latest damning report joins a growing body of harrowing accounts documenting mass killings, extrajudicial executions, and ethnically motivated violence across Sudan. It comes at a time when the country is facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with tens of thousands of people experiencing acute food insecurity and widespread displacement. Meanwhile, the conflict continues to spread across the country, and the number of regional actors involved is expanding.